Foil-decorating sheets for use in decorating interior automotive trims and exterior automotive trims are strictly required to have good weathering characteristic, good three-dimensional formability, and good transparency.
Hitherto, a foil-decorating sheet having such characteristics has been known such that a decorative layer is formed on an acrylic film. For production of a foil-decorated resin article using such a sheet, the following method has been known. The method comprises setting a foil-decorating sheet in an injection mold, clamping the mold, injecting a molding resin mass into a cavity, and allowing the molding resin to set, whereby simultaneously with the formation of a resin molded article, the foil-decorating sheet is integrally bonded to the surface of the resin molded article. In the case of interior automotive trims or exterior automotive trims, polypropylene resin or acrylonitrile butadiene-styrene resin is generally used as the molding resin.
Usually, however, the acrylic film which constitutes the foil-decorating sheet and the polypropylene resin which constitutes the molding resin are considerably different from each other in shrinkage factor; and therefore, their relative adhesion behavior is unsatisfactory. This poses an issue that, in the resulting foil-decorated resin article, the acrylic film will become peeled from the polypropylene resin molded article.
Another issue is that since an acrylic film is brittle and liable to break, the film may be damaged when the film is three-dimensionally preformed or set in a mold.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a foil-decorating sheet which can exhibit high adhesion to a molding resin, is not liable to become peeled from the molding resin, and is applicable to a three-dimensionally configured molded article and, in particular, to a deep-drawn molded article, and a method of producing a foil-decorated resin article using such a sheet.